Sunday, September 21, 2003

By Joe Grata, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

The Port Authority will receive $10 million in extra funding through the state to help plug a $19 million shortfall in its operating budget, postponing another fare increase and major bus and trolley service cuts at least through winter.

On Thursday, when Allegheny County Chief Executive Jim Roddey announced the effort that also involved PennDOT and the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, the region's transportation planning agency, one media member wanted to know where they found the money.

"Magic," Roddey said. Just kidding, of course.

Without getting into the details, it's federal highway money being taken from an $80 million reconstruction of Interstate 79 between Kirwan Heights and the Parkway West, where it isn't needed for at least another year.

The innovative action to rescue public transit, at least for the interim, sends two signals.

1) The new PennDOT administration is more pro-transit than the previous one, which froze operating assistance in five of its eight years in office and launched Port Authority finances on a downward spiral.

The $10 million surprise is an indication that PennDOT Secretary Al Biehler means what he said several weeks ago in his Harrisburg office: "This is not the Department of Highways. It is the Department of Transportation."

2) The new PennDOT administration is more pro-Pittsburgh, inasmuch as the $10 million redirected from the I-79 project to help the Port Authority is extra money that'll have to be replaced from somewhere in the next year or two.

"Somewhere" is likely to be "Spike" money, or about $180 million a year doled out statewide, largely at PennDOT's discretion, sometimes as a political reward.

Only $65.5 million was committed to the 10-county metro area for the 1999-2006 period under the previous regime, so we're due $150 million as our fair share.

I'm happy to show PennDOT where to spend the Spike money that would bring us up to parity with other areas of Pennsylvania: I-79 Kirwan Heights-to-Parkway West project; missing ramps at the I-79/Parkway West interchange; Route 22 between Murrysville and Toll 66 in Export; and Route 28 reconstruction from the North Side to Millvale.

I offer further evidence of the new administration's commitment to public transit.

It's a copy of a personal letter, dated Sept. 12, sent by Biehler to Paul Skoutelas, chief executive officer of the Port Authority, and Faye Moore, general manager of the Philadelphia-based Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. It reads, in part:

"Gov. [Ed] Rendell has agreed to advocate for a $300 million increase in this year's budget for 'cut restorations,' more than enough to restore the cuts made to transit assistance.

"As you well know, restoration of these cuts will not by itself close the budget gaps that exist at SEPTA and the Port Authority. We have been working ... to craft an approach that can eliminate the need for [frequent] fare increases and service cuts.

"We are confident that this goal can be achieved but only if each of the parties involved -- the governor, Legislature, SEPTA and [Port Authority] management, and the regional planning and funding agencies for transportation, take the necessary steps.

"None of us acting alone can solve the problem, but all of us working together can."

Sounds like a plan.

Parkway designation. I updated the news last week about a proposal to designate Interstate 376 (the Parkway East) and parts of Interstate 279 (the Parkway West) and Routes 22, 30, 60 and 422 all as I-376 between Monroeville and New Castle, ending silly confusion for visitors and Pittsburgh International Airport users.

Good idea. The names and numbers change but it's the same heavily used road in the same transportation corridor.

The Federal Highway Administration has been fighting the designation, arguing that not all of the roads meet interstate engineering and safety standards.

If that's the case, Cliff Loehr, of Elizabeth, asks, how did the Parkway East and Parkway West ever qualify as interstates?

In an e-mail, he cited "extremely short deceleration and acceleration ramps, some with stop signs and most with poor visibility because of trees or mounds of dirt that block lines of sight; lack of shoulders in many sections; and very poor median dividers."

Dear Cliff

Good question.

One of the Federal Highway Administration's concerns is the Route 22-30 interchange in Robinson. Is it any worse than Downtown interchanges? Or the Green Tree interchange? Or the Squirrel Hill interchange? Or the Churchill interchange?

Another reader, Brian Dowd, pointed out that I-376 wouldn't be an appropriate designation anyway because, under the interstate numbering system, an odd-number first digit indicates it's a spur off the primary interstate, Interstate 76, or the Pennsylvania Turnpike, in this case.

An even-number first digit would be in order because it connects at both ends to a primary interstate --the turnpike at both the Monroeville and New Castle interchanges, while another terminus would be Interstate 80 in Mercer County.

Hard-headed federal officials say they can't make exceptions to rules.

They don't want to talk about their bone-headed decision that created Interstate 99 and placed it out of sequence between Interstate 79 in Western Pennsylvania and Interstate 81 and Interstate 83 in Central Pennsylvania, skewing the interstate numbering system on a national scale.

Plate du jour. Pam Vingle, of West Mifflin, spotted a pair of Pennsylvania personalized license plates parked outside a double garage in Peters. On the minivan: HOW BOUT. On the sport utility vehicle next to it: DEM EERS. The last time I checked West Virginia's football record, I wasn't impressed.

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